Method and apparatus for capability-based multimedia interactions

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems are disclosed for enabling participants to interact remotely through multiple multimedia channels based on the configured capabilities of participants. The system consists of a server and one or more client devices. On joining new interactive session, the attributes and capabilities of the participant are determined. Other participants are notified as to the attributes and capabilities of the new participant. The interaction between participants is determined by their attributes and capabilities and that of the participant they wish to interact with. 
     Participants can use a client device to join a session. If the device is capable of rendering a graphical display based on the capability information configured for that participant and device, participants can view multiple views rendered for the session in different regions of a display. The participants may interact with members of the session they select based on their mutual configured capabilities, may change the views displayed and their sizes, and may get dynamic updates as to the set of participants if their capability information supports that.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention generally relates to enabling capability-basedparticipation by two or more participants.

2. Background and Description of the Related Art

Interactions between remote participants can take many forms. It can bea planning meeting, a seminar, a classroom, or thousands of peoplewatching a speech. In these interactions, people assume or may beassigned various roles. For instance, in a remote classroom environment,you have students, an instructor, possibly assistants to the instructor,and display of one or more multimedia presentations.

Interactions may be through multiple channels; a webinar, phone line,and TTY, but each would be limited to the set of capabilities associatedwith that channel and all users in that channel would be limited tothose capabilities. For instance, all persons logged in through the webwould be assumed to have the same capabilities.

In each of these roles, there may be different kinds of actions one canperform on people or objects in other roles. An instructor can start apublic discussion with a selected student or group of students. Aparticipant, not to disturb the rest of the class, could have a privateconversation with another participant. A participant may wish to focushis attention on a multimedia presentation and not watch the presenter,or vice versa. The other streams will continue unabated, making thischallenging for the participant to filter out these other distractions.

Multimedia presentations can be delivered to large groups of people forviewing and interaction using a variety of devices such as computers,cell phones, and PDA's. These devices, which we will collectively referto as client devices, enable one or more persons to interact withvarious portions of the screen in a fixed manner. Such conferencing orother interactive software enable persons to receive fixed views ofpersons such that either the size of the entire display can be modified,or one can make portions larger or smaller. Doing the latter would causethe partial obliteration of the other portions of the display ratherthan resizing to fit.

Remote presentations impliedly create two roles; the presenter and theviewer. The presenter owns one or more windows associated. The presentermay temporarily or permanently promote one of the viewers to be thepresenter.

SUMMARY

In one embodiment, a method for managing participant data to configureremote interactions with a plurality of participants using multiplemultimedia streams over a network, the remote interactions determined byparticipant data associated with each of the plurality of participantsis disclosed. A new participant is enabled to join an interactivesession. The attributes and capabilities of the new participant aredetermined. Other participants are notified that the new participant hasjoined and what his attributes and capabilities are. A view of theparticipants is presented to the participant on a display.

In another embodiment, a method for enabling a user to configure adisplay consisting of one or more regions is disclosed. A region isselected to be modified. A command is sent to change the size orvisibility of the selected region. The size or visibility of theselected region is modified. All other regions are resized to use theremaining space on the display.

In another embodiment, a presence server managing participant data toconfigure remote interactions with a plurality of participants multiplemultimedia streams over a network , the remote interactions determinedby participant data associated with each of the plurality ofparticipants is disclosed. The apparatus includes a computer coupled toa network, storage for category, capability and profile information,storage for commands coupled to the computer, a presence notificationmanager, a client device handler, a session manager, a profile manager,a capability manager, and a status manager. The presence notificationmanager sends notifications to client devices that one or moreparticipants have joined the session, left the session, or changedattributes , capabilities or status. The client device handler sends andreceives messages from the client devices. The session manager managesthe state of a session and list of participants associated with asession. The category manager manages how each client device mayinteract with the session. The profile manager manages a list of usersand all attributes associated with that user. The capability managerdetermines what capabilities each client device and its associated userhas. The status manager determines what the status of each client deviceand its associated user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A better understanding of the present invention can be obtained from thefollowing detailed description in conjunction with the followingdrawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates the prior art.

FIG. 2 illustrates the process of participant-based multimediainteractions in the prior art.

FIG. 3 illustrates the environment in which an embodiment of theparticipant-based multimedia can operate.

FIG. 4 illustrates one embodiment of a presence server.

FIG. 5 illustrates one embodiment of a participant-base multimediaclient.

FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of the participant-based multimediadisplay.

FIG. 7 illustrates the initial setup for one embodiment of an auditoriumview with one row.

FIG. 8 illustrates the initial setup for one embodiment of an auditoriumview with two rows.

FIG. 9 illustrates an embodiment of the flow which occurs on the clientdevice when the client device receives a notification that anotherclient device joins or leaves the interactive session.

FIG. 10 illustrates an embodiment of a configurable client devicedisplay with three tiles at startup. A tile is a rectangular regiondisplayed to a participant, where the view of the session on the clientdevice consists of one or more tiles. Depending on the client device, aparticipant may have the capability to move, resize, or hide each tile.

FIG. 11 illustrates an embodiment of a configurable client devicedisplay with three tiles after startup has completed.

FIG. 12 illustrates an embodiment of a configurable client devicedisplay with three tiles after a user has commanded the client device tohide one of the three tiles.

The figures are provided in order to provide a thorough understanding ofthe present invention. The figures should not be construed as limitingthe breath of the invention in any manner.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows an example of the prior art consisting of a client-serverapplication which displays to the client in a fixed format. The screenis divided into several rectangular regions 102, 104, 110. Each regioncontains a fixed output. These regions include information from thepresenters desktop 102, a list of who is connected 104, and a regionwhich allows users to exchange information via text chat 110. The listof persons who are connected 104 contain whatever identifier each userenters and perhaps some added text info that the user entered thatfurther identifies them. There also maybe an indication of whether theyare connected by phone or by internet. The application enables chat onlyto those users with internet capability.

The window containing the presenters desktop 110 may show the entiredesktop or a specific application running on the desktop. The user hasno control over the size of the display. Though the user has thecapability of displaying more of the list and chat window, it isgenerally only to make it wider or narrower and the presenter's desktopdisplay is either padded with space or clipped.

FIG. 2 illustrates one environment in which one or more embodiments ofthe invention may operate. However, not all of these components may berequired to practice the invention, and variations in the arrangementand type of the components may be made without departing from the spiritor scope of the invention.

As shown in FIG. 2, system 200 includes internet client devices 202-204,a primary network 205, and a presence server 210. The primary network205 is in communication with and enables communication between each ofthe internet client devices 202-204 and presence server 210. Anon-internet client device 209 may also be connected via an intermediarynetwork 207, such as a cellular or telephony network. The presenceserver 210 may then interconnect with this intermediary network 207either indirectly via a gateway 208, or directly through its owninterface 209.

Internet client devices 202-204 may include virtually any interactivedevice capable of receiving and sending messages over a network, such asthe primary network 205 or an intermediary network 207, to and fromanother interactive device, such as the presence server 206, each other,and the like. Similarly, client devices 202-204 may be any device thatis capable of connecting using a wired or wireless communication mediumsuch as a PDA, POCKET PC, wearable computer, and any other device thatis equipped to communicate over a wired and/or wireless communicationmedium.

In one or more embodiment, each internet client device within 202-204may include a browser application that is configured to receive and tosend web pages, and the like. The browser application may be configuredto receive and display graphics, text, multimedia, and the like,employing virtually any web-based language, including but not limited toa Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), such as Hyper Text MarkupLanguage (HTML), a wireless application protocol (WAP), a HandheldDevice Markup Language (HDML) such as Wireless Markup Language (WML),WMLScript, JavaScript, and the like.

Internet client devices 202-204 may further be configured to receive amessage from another computing device employing another mechanism,including but not limited to email, Short Message Service (SMS),Multimedia Message Service (MMS), instant messaging (IM), internet relaychat (IRC), mIRC, Jabber, and the like.

Internet client devices 202-204 may further be configured to enable auser to manage a user profile including one or more attributes of theuser which may or may in turn be saved at the presence server 206 or adatabase. As such, internet client devices 202-204 may further include aclient application that is configured to manage various actions onbehalf of the client device. For example, the client application mayenable a user to interact with the browser application, emailapplication, and the like, to customize how another user might view apersona, profile or the like associated with the user. For example, theuser may employ the client application, in part, to provide a picture tobe displayed to another user connected to the presence server 210representing that user when that user is connected to the presenceserver 210 when both users are interacting as part of a meeting,seminar, class, or the like, through the presence server 210.

The primary network 205 is configured to couple one interactive deviceto another interactive device to enable them to communicate. The primarynetwork 205 is enabled to employ any form of computer readable media forcommunicating information from one electronic device to another. Theprimary network 205 may include a wireless interface, and/or a wiredinterface, such as the Internet, in addition to local area networks(LANs), wide area networks (WANs), direct connections such as through auniversal serial bus (USB) port, other forms of computer-readable media,or any combination thereof.

The set of non-internet client devices 209 may include devices thattypically connect using a wired communications medium such as button orrotary telephones, personal computers, multiprocessor systems,microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, network PCsand the like. The set of such devices may also include devices thattypically connect using a wireless communications network such as cellphones, smart phones, pagers, walkie-talkies, radio frequency (RF)devices, infrared (IR) devices, Citizen Band (CB) radios, integrateddevices combining one or more of the preceding devices, or virtually anymobile device, and the like.

The media used to transmit information in communication links asdescribed above illustrates one type of computer-readable media, namelycommunication media. Generally, computer-readable media includes anymedia that can be accessed by a computing device. Computer-readablemedia may include computer storage media, communication media, or anycombination thereof.

Additionally, communication media typically embodies computer-readableinstructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in amodulated data signal such as a carrier wave, data signal, or othertransport mechanism and includes any information delivery media. Theterm “modulated data signal” and “carrier-wave signal” includes a signalthat has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such amanner as to encode information, instructions, data, and the like, inthe signal.

One embodiment of the presence server 210 is described in more detailbelow in conjunction with FIG. 3. Briefly, however, the presence server210 may include any computing device capable of connecting to theprimary network 205 to manage one or more interactions with two or moreusers, such as users of at least one of the internet client devices202-204. Devices that may operate as the presence server 210 includepersonal computers, multiprocessor systems, servers, and the like.

The presence server may be configured to receive information associatedwith a non-internet client devices 209 and/or the internet clientdevices 202-204, and to enable a user to customize a view based in parton the received information. The received information may include, butis not limited to, profile information, category information, statusinformation, or capability information. This collection of receivedinformation associated with each user, herein referred to as“participant data”, provides the framework for interaction when a userparticipates in a session.

The term “profile information”, as used herein, is meant to encompassdescriptive information about the user to include information that isnot specific to the types of interaction. This would include but is notlimited to the user's name or public identifier, age, location fromwhich they are connected, and a picture or graphic to display torepresent that user.

The term “category information”, as used herein, is meant to encompassinformation about the user to include information that is specific tohow the user will use the interaction. This would include but is notlimited to school information such as grade or major, jobclassification, or role associated with the particular interaction(participant, presenter, help desk, etc).

The term “status information”, as used herein, is meant to encompassinformation about the client or client device that shows event or statechanges of interest to the presenter or others in that interactivesession. For instance, whether the user has left a client deviceunattended and so is not available to accept interactive requests,whether the user has a pending question to ask the presenter, whetherthe user is currently in a chat with another participant, and the like.

The term “capability information”, as used herein, is meant to encompassinformation about the client device and user to include information thatis specific to how the user can interact with the presence server on aparticular interaction session. For instance, if the user is dialed inor connected via a simple cell phone, then it would be voice only and nocapabilities like graphics or chat would be available. However, if theuser was connected via a personal computer with no microphone or camera,they would have graphical capabilities, could do chats, but could notsend voice or video information. This also encompasses such things asavailable bandwidth.

The term “interaction session”, as used herein, is meant to encompassthe time when one or more persons are connected to a presence server forthe purpose of a particular interaction, such as a meeting, discussion,seminar, or class.

The term “participant”, as used herein, is meant to encompass a user whois part of an interaction session but is not in control of theinformation being presented to other users. Each participant is assigneda role at the time of the creation of the event if known in advance, orbased on the URL the participant is given to join the event.

The profile, category, and capability information may be stored in mediathat includes database, text, files and the like, that are configured tomaintain and store information associated with the user and interactionsession. Moreover, the information stored may include how profile andcategory information may be viewed by another participant. For instance,it could be set so that personal information is stored (date of birth,personal identification number) but only viewable by persons withapproval to do so by an administrator or the user.

FIG. 3 shows one embodiment of the presence server 300. Althoughillustrated in FIG. 3 in distinct components, the client device handler350, the session manager 352, presence notification manager 354,category store 356, profile store 358, and capability store 360 may bearranged, combined, and the like, in any of a variety of ways, withother components embodied on the client or the server, without departingfrom the scope of the present invention. For example, for some types ofclient devices that do support storage or client program executionbeyond render a graphic and sending interaction inputs (such as from atouch screen, keyboard or mouse) to a server, the software that is saidto be embodied on the server may be on the client, and may be arrangedas part of the component herein identified as the presence notificationmanager 354.

The presence server 300 also may include input/output devices 324 forcommunicating with external devices, such as a mouse, keyboard, scanner,or other devices not shown in FIG. 3. The presence server may alsoinclude a video display adapter 310 to enable the interface of anexternal monitor. However, in one or more embodiments, for the executionof the programs necessary for the notification server to run, there isno need for direct human interaction on the server as the purpose of theserver is to maintain a plurality of interactive sessions throughpresence requests and notification. Likewise, the presence server mayfurther include additional mass storage facilities such as aCD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive 326 or hard disk drive 328. Hard disk drive 328 maybe utilized to store, among other things, application programs,databases, client device handler 350, session manager 352, presencenotification manager 354, category store 356, profile store 358,capability store 360, and the like. However, in other embodiments, theinformation may be stored on another form of persistence store such as aflash drive, read-only memory (ROM) 312, or network access storage (NAS)drives.

Computers generally run programs by stepping through a program oraggregate of programs called an operating system (O/S) 308. Parts of theO/S may run in random-access memory 306 and execute on a centralprocessing unit (CPU) 302. Other parts may execute in ROM 312 with astored Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) 302 stored in ROM to enable thecomputer to start. However, one or more embodiments a computer mayinclude some or all of these components, such as a computer that runsonly on software burned into ROM 312, using RAM 306 only for temporarydata storage.

FIG. 4 shows an embodiment of an internet-capable client device 400. Oneor more embodiments of the internet-capable device is a computing deviceconsisting of a CPU 402 with RAM 404 and ROM 420, In one or moreembodiments, the RAM 404 is loaded at startup with parts of the O/S 404and the ROM 420 contains the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) 422. Inone or more embodiments, information may be stored on a Hard Drive 412,but information may also be stored on another form of persistent storagesuch as a CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive 414, read-only memory 420, or one or morenetwork access storage (NAS) drives. In one or more embodiments theclient device will include a display as an integral part of the clientdevice 400, which in one or more embodiments will need to interact withthe processor through a video display adaptor 418. The client mayinteract with the client device through one or more Input/Output devices416 such as a mouse, keyboard, webcam, microphone, and the like.

Although illustrated in FIG. 4 in distinct components, the presenceclient handler 406, the list manager 410, participant button handler424, and auditorium view manager 426 may be arranged, combined, and thelike, in any of a variety of ways, with other components embodied on theclient or the server, without departing from the scope of the presentinvention. For example, for some types of client devices that do notsupport storage or client program execution beyond render a graphic andsending interaction inputs (such as from a touch screen, keyboard ormouse) to a server, the software that is said to be embodied on theclient may be on the server, and may be arranged as part of thecomponent herein identified as the presence notification manager 354 onFIG. 3.

In one or more embodiments, the presence client handler 406 acts as acoordinator to send requests to the presence server 300 to connect andnotify the server of the client's attributes. The presence clienthandler 406 also receives requests from the presence server 300containing information on other clients who join or leave theinteractive session or change status, and then processes them locally toupdate the associated views.

In one or more embodiments, the list manager 410 will maintain the listof client devices. Each of the client devices and any user limitationssuch as the user being away is mapped to a known list of client devicetypes and user types (or unknown). The characteristics associated withthe interactive session that the particular client device has joined arestored on the server 300 as a “context” data structure. The list managerprovides the characteristics of the limitations of interaction with eachclient device based on the characteristics of the device and the user.

In one or more embodiments, the participant button handler 424 willaccept requests to modify the state of each tile either by size or byvisibility.

In one or more embodiments, the auditorium view manager 426 will updatethe auditorium view based on the change in state of the participants inthe interactive session, as indications are received that participantshave joined, left, or otherwise changed state, such as changes inbandwidth, camera status, or privacy controls that the user has enabledor disabled.

The operation of certain aspects of one or more embodiments of thepresent invention will now be described with respect to FIG. 5-8.

In large gatherings, it is helpful to be able to view various elementsof an interaction in a way that suits each participant and can bedynamically changed without losing track of what elements are presentand who is present.

It is desirable to have a dynamic view of the participants andpresentation materials which assume various roles. For instance, duringa distance learning class, a student is listening to a lecturer describea historical event which is unfolding on a video being shown. Thestudent may wish to use most of the display to show the video and thelecturer and hide the audience view. However, at some point the studentmay have a question that a friend can answer privately, so he may hidethe view of the lecturer and display the view of the participants. Themultimedia presentation would still be visible but smaller. Once thequestion has been answered, the audience view can be hidden away againand the video can take up most of the display.

A user request to join a session is made via the URL link or the phonenumber the user is forwarded to the session manager 352 to define a newinteractive session. In one embodiment, the interactive session may bedefined as open to anyone or to a specific set of identified users. Inanother embodiment it may require that only some identified subset ofusers who have a profile in the profile store 358 may join theinteractive session. In some manner, the users will be notified of thetime and identifier associated with the interactive session. In one ormore embodiments, the interactive sessions may be ad hoc, where one ormore users may define the interactive sessions on the fly, other usersmay select from the interactive sessions available and request to joinan interactive session. In one or more embodiments, the request may beable to define the interactive session as only available during aspecific time period. Although in one or more embodiments theinteractive session may be saved for future playback or annotation.

Once the interactive session has been established, users may makerequests via their client device to join the interactive session via thepresence notification server 354. If they are allowed to join based onthe session parameters, the client device is added to the list of clientdevices associated with the interactive session. If the client devicehas the capability to receive data, the client device will be sent anotification list of all of the users currently connected to the sessionfrom the presence notification server 354. This notification list willinclude a list of users who were connected to the session when theclient device joined and is stored in the presence client handler 406.For each user who is in the session, the profile, capability, status andcategory information based on the client device each user is using willbe sent to the client device and the information is stored in the listmanager 410.

In one or more embodiments whether or not the user is capable ofreceiving data may be determined by how they are connected. Forinstance, a client device which connects via a telephone network(Skype™, rotary phone, simple cell phone) would be detected as such bythe server, and so having only voice capabilities would only bedisplayed as such to other users and would not be sent any informationabout other users directly. The system could only identify and describethat user by the identifier that user supplied or by the number theycalled in on, and so make use of any profile, capability, and categoryinformation stored on the presence server that call-in number oridentifier supplied by the user. In another embodiment, such a usercould use touch tone keys and voice to connect to a device such as anInteractive Voice Response and ask questions, have voice chats withother members of the audience, obtain information about the session suchas what other users are connected and how, and the like.

Once a client device which can receive data and graphically display thedata is connected and receives the list of current users, a view of thecurrent participants is constructed on their display. This view, ortile, consists of one or more display objects. The user may then viewthe display objects, listen to and watch and incoming video/audiostreams which are part of the display objects, and interact with thedisplay objects based on the display object's characteristics.

In one or more embodiments, any time a client device joins theinteractive session, leaves the interactive session by logging out ortiming out, or changes its' status attributes (such as bandwidth, camerastatus or privacy controls), the presence notification manager 354 willsend a notification to any client devices capable of receiving such anotification to its presence client handler 406, and the client devicewill update their view accordingly. In one or more embodiment, thepresence notification manager 354 may allow this notification to occuron a timely configurable basis rather than instantaneously, to preventthe client device from being overwhelmed by frequent requests.

In one or more embodiments, the detection of the client device is doneby having the client device log into an eXtendible Message and PresenceProtocol (XMPP) server. In one or more embodiments, where the clientdevice does not support the XMPP protocol, detection of the clientdevice is done by having a client device handler send a request to thepresence notification manager 354. The client device handler 350 wouldattempt to determine if there is any further information associated withthe identifier in the profile 358, category 356, or capability 360 datastores. For instance, a user may be using a phone, but going through anIVR which enables the user to ask for information. Or a user may be inthe capability as hearing disabled, so even though they are using aphone line it is via a TTY, and so they can respond to text and chatmessages, but not voice questions.

FIG. 5 shows the process flow for one or more embodiments for a clientdevice connecting to the presence server for a specific session. Aclient device sends a request for a connection to the server 502. In oneor more embodiments, the request for a connection may be executed by anon-internet device by dialing into a specific phone number or throughan IVR to select the session. In one or more embodiments, the requestfor a connection by a network-enabled device may be executed by havingthe client presence handler 406 send a message to the presence server,the message configured to request a connection to a specific session.Once the device is connected, the type of client device is detected onthe presence server 504 and the type determined by the presence clienthandler 406. In one or more embodiments, the client device handler 350can infer the type of device by the way the client device connected tothe server, such as through a telephony connection. In one or moreembodiments, the client device handler 350 may query a network-enableddevice for information associated with the user and client device, orreceive that information as part of the connection request. By anetwork-enabled device, we are talking about a device which can reportnetwork-associated characteristics such as its bandwidth or network linkstatus. In one or more embodiments, if the client device handler 350determines the type of connection is interactive 506, the client devicemay be queried by the client device handler 350 for more attributes suchas bandwidth, camera status, and privacy controls 508. If the clientdevice is interactive and capable of storing information, the clientdevice will be notified by the presence notification manager 354 of thecurrent list of users and their attributes 510, this information storedlocally on the client device in the list manager 410. In one or moreembodiments, if the device is not interactive, one or more data storeson the server will be queried to see if it has attributes associatedwith the client device and/or user associated with that client device512. If it does not, it is treated as a default unidentified device typewith an associated set of characteristics. A notification message isthen sent to other client devices via the presence notification manager354 consisting of at least the new user's identification information andattributes 514.

FIG. 6 shows an embodiment of the flow which occurs on an embodiment ofa client device when it receives an update from the server. On receiptof an update indicating the addition or removal of one or more clientdevices 602 the list manager 410 updates the list 604. In one or moreembodiments, this could include an algorithm to sort or filter theentries based on one or more attribute of the client device. Theauditorium manager 426 updates the audience view to reflect the change606. In one or more embodiments, the step of updating the audience viewmay occur immediately, or if the may occur after some period of time toprevent thrashing, or may occur only if and when the view is visible tothe client.

FIG. 7 shows an embodiment of an interactive display 700. The displayconsists of 3 tiles. The first tile 702 shows everyone who is connectedas a participant 716. The second tile 712 contains the host 706 and anyparticipant he or she invites to have a public discussion with him/her708. The third tile 714 contains a multimedia presentation being sentfrom the presenter 704. One can create a multitude of tiles based on aset of rules around the roles and tasks performed by the personsassociated with the client devices. These rules define the visual layoutof tiles and could either be fixed for the session or dependent on thestate of a session. the In one or more embodiments, you can have a tilefor assistants to the presenter to answer logistical questions posed byparticipants.

In one or more embodiments, using controls on the display 710, one canhide or show each of the tiles. In one or more embodiments, the sizingof the tiles may be done by controls on the tiles themselves; then, whenthe tiles are hidden and redisplayed, the size is based on the displayavailable and the size setting last selected. In other embodiments, itmay be done by controls on the overall display.

In one or more embodiments, a display consists of one or more regionswhich represent collections of types of real objects. These regions, ortiles, may include one or more display objects that represent types ofparticipants (groups, individuals, speakers, guides, etc), or types ofinteractions (chat, multimedia).

In one or more embodiments, each tile is a displayed as a rectangularregion and is initially placed on the screen in a location on a fixedgrid. The location and the grid size is defined by the designer via aset of CSS-like layout configuration statements which are associatedwith the display definition. Each tile is always anchored to its' gridcell at design time and initially assumes some size relative to thescreen. In an individual users display, the tile may be selected to beresized, either to some maximum or minimum size. The minimum size is setat design time in the configuration for each tile. The maximum is alsoset at design time, but is limited either to the space available or themaximum set value whichever is bigger.

Tiles may be allowed to overlap in a manner selectable by the user. Inone or more embodiments, a tile may be expanded to fill the space in agrid in the horizontal and vertical directions, up to the border ofanother visible tile. The expansion process of each tile isconfigurable. The expansion process can be defined as horizontal only,vertical only, first horizontal then vertical or first vertical thenhorizontal. The goal is to fill as much space as possible on a requestto expand while maintaining the desired characteristics of the tile.

In one or more embodiments, each object type within the tile has aspecific response on select or double-click. In one or more embodiments,selecting an object will make the sizing handles visible and a doubleclick could select an interaction with the object. In one or moreembodiments, double clicking on the speaker by a participant could opena question window, double clicking on a participant by the speaker couldmove the participant into the speaker box so they can have a publicconversation. In another embodiment, double clicking on a participant orpresenter could cause a popup menu to be displayed presenting multipleoptions to select from.

Each participant box could show specific state information such asbandwidth, camera status and privacy controls to a specific participant.For instance, a small graphic could be shown on or next to a specificparticipant to show that the participant is in a chat or has had a chatwith that participant in the recent past.

As a participant chooses to leave or enter the interaction, the audiencedisplay will adjust. It does this by changing the size and location ofeach participant. In one embodiment, the ordering of the participants isbased on time of entry. In another embodiment, they may be sorted basedon some attribute specific to them such as time/date or registration,personal characteristic such as last name, or some characteristicassigned to them by the speaker. In one or more embodiments, thisadjustment will occur on a periodic basis to prevent overload of theuser device or confusion on the part of the user caused by constantshuffling of the display.

In one or more embodiments, the participant may have the ability todynamically reorder or filter the audience participants. For instance,in one embodiment there may be hundreds of people attending apresentation, but a participant only wants to view people whom he sharessome attribute such as all working for the same company, samedepartment, or same study group.

To allow a user of a client device to focus on a specific portion of thedisplay and/or presentation, one or more embodiments would enable a userto hide or show each tile.

One embodiment of the tiling is shown in FIGS. 8-10. In one scenario asshown in FIG. 8, we have three tiles 802-806 defined on a 4×4 grid 800.Each tile has a home cell in the grid. FIG. 8 shows the initialpositions of the three tiles. An order has been defined for therendering of each tile when visible. The tile whose home is at [1,1] 802is defined to be the first to be resized, and is further defined to bestretched vertically then horizontally. The tile whose home is at [2,3]804 is defined to be the second to be resized, and is further defined tobe stretched horizontally then vertically. The tile whose home is at[4,2] 806 is further defined to be stretched vertically only.

FIG. 9 shows what happens when all three tiles are allowed to fill theirmax settings. The first tile 802 stretches vertically but can't stretchhorizontally because of the second tile 804. The second tile 804stretches through its row into cells [2,3] and [2,4], and can't fill[2,1] because of the presence of the first tile 802. The second tilethen fills the space upward but can't go down because of the presence ofthe third tile 806, The third tile 806 then can only stretch verticallybut in any case is only configured to do so. In one or more embodiments,the tiles may also have min/max settings configured at design time sothat each tile may not be able to stretch to cover all of the spaceavailable.

FIG. 10 shows what happens when the second tile is hidden. The firsttile 802 already fills vertically in the grid 800, but will take overthe horizontal space vacated by the second tile 804 which had beenhidden from view by the user. The first tile 802 will not fill the lastcolumn because of the presence of the third tile 806. The third tile 806then goes next, to expand vertically to fill the entire column.

As shown in FIG. 11, participants, each of which represents one or morepersons interacting with the presentation through a single computer, aredisplayed as an audience object 1107 within the audience block 1101. Inone or more embodiments, the audience block 1101 is displayed as aplurality of arched rows 1105, with the audience objects 1107 in eachrow getting smaller to simulate perspective.

The area of the audience block is defined as a set of one or more rows.Each row is delineated by a line through the block 1103, 1104. The goalis to display the users in an arc, as one would see in an audience orlecture hall. The distance from the bottom of the block to the firstline is some percent larger than the distance from the first line to thesecond line and so on. In one embodiment this would be 10%. So thedistance to the first line would be (100/(1+1.1))*1.1 or 52.4% of thevertical size of the block, and the remaining distance would be 47.6% ofthe vertical size of the block. Some distance from the center of thebottom of the block some imaginary vertex is defined. This distance ischosen so that the angle arc from the ends of the bottom line produces acurve which will touch the first line but not cross it.

The size of the audience object in each row is chosen so that the one inthe center will not go outside the audience block while its center pointis over the point where the arc meets the line. For instance, the aboveexample where there is one row, the height of the audience object wouldbe 95.2% of the height of the block, based on having the center point onthe line which is 47.6% of the distance from the top of the block.

The width of the audience object in each row would be chosen based onits position relative to the next one, allowing some configured gap inpixels between them. The angle created by the lines from the bottom edgeof the block to the imaginary point is split into one more part thanthere are audience objects. If there is only one audience object, its'center is placed at the intersection of the angle bisector and the line.If there are two, the angle is split into three and the two blocks areplaced on each inner line where it meets the arc drawn from each endpoint. And so on, until the width of each block is reduced below someconfigured size or they would touch, then a second row is added.

If the size of the audience block 1101 is changed at the client display,then the number of rows would adjust accordingly.

Selecting a single participant in the audience view expands the view sothat more information associated with the participant is visible. In oneor more embodiment, this information will include information about theprofile, category, and capabilities of the participant. For example, itcould display graphics to show whether or not this participant has avoice capabilities, video capabilities, is on a mobile device, and thelike.

FIG. 12 shows one embodiment of the generation of the audience view forthe first row of users. A line 1202 is drawn through the audience tile1201 such that the distance below the line is some fraction larger thanthe distance above the line. A point is selected directly below thecenter of the audience tile 1204 and an arc 1203 is constructed from thepoint through the audience tile such that the ends of the arc touch thebottom corners of the audience tile 1201 and the center of the line 702.The objects representing the participants 1205 are then added such thatthe center of the object is at the intersection of a ray coming from thepoint 1204 and the arc 1203. In one or more embodiments, the rays areconstructed around an odd number of participants. So for the firstparticipant, one ray is constructed in the center of the arc. For thenext participant, two rays are constructed bisecting each half of thearc. If there is room for four more participants, each of the four arcsare bisected, and so on.

As shown in FIG. 11, once the first row is full a second line 1103 iscreated between first line 1104 and the top of the tile 1101 such thatthe distance from the first line to the second line is fractionallylarger than the distance from the second line to the top of the tile.The size of each participant object is reduced to make room, but each ofthe participant objects in the first row are larger than the ones in thesecond row. In one or more embodiments, the arc defining the second row1102 goes from the ends of the first line 1104 to the center of thesecond line 1103.

In one or more embodiments, programming instructions for executing abovedescribed methods and systems are provided. The programming instructionsare stored in a computer readable media.

With the above embodiments in mind, it should be understood that one ormore embodiments of the invention may employ variouscomputer-implemented operations involving data stored in computersystems. These operations are those requiring physical manipulation ofphysical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantitiestake the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored,transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. Further, themanipulations performed are often referred to in terms, such asproducing, identifying, determining, or comparing.

Any of the operations described herein that form part of one or moreembodiments of the invention are useful machine operations. One or moreembodiments of the invention also relates to a device or an apparatusfor performing these operations. The apparatus may be speciallyconstructed for the required purposes, such as the carrier networkdiscussed above, or it may be a general purpose computer selectivelyactivated or configured by a computer program stored in the computer. Inparticular, various general purpose machines may be used with computerprograms written in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may bemore convenient to construct a more specialized apparatus to perform therequired operations.

The programming modules and software subsystems described herein can beimplemented using programming languages such as Flash, JAVA™, C++, C,C#, Visual Basic, JavaScript, PHP, XML, HTML etc., or a combination ofprogramming languages. Commonly available protocols such as SOAP/HTTPmay be used in implementing interfaces between programming modules. Aswould be known to those skilled in the art the components andfunctionality described above and elsewhere herein may be implemented onany desktop operating system such as different versions of MicrosoftWindows, Apple Mac, Unix/X-Windows, Linux, etc., executing in avirtualized or non-virtualized environment, using any programminglanguage suitable for desktop software development.

The programming modules and ancillary software components, includingconfiguration file or files, along with setup files required forproviding the method and apparatus for troubleshooting subscribers on atelecommunications network and related functionality as described hereinmay be stored on a computer readable medium. Any computer medium such asa flash drive, a CD-ROM disk, an optical disk, a floppy disk, a harddrive, a shared drive, and storage suitable for providing downloads fromconnected computers, could be used for storing the programming modulesand ancillary software components. It would be known to a person skilledin the art that any storage medium could be used for storing thesesoftware components so long as the storage medium can be read by acomputer system.

One or more embodiments of the invention may be practiced with othercomputer system configurations including hand-held devices,microprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumerelectronics, minicomputers, mainframe computers and the like. Theinvention may also be practiced in distributing computing environmentswhere tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linkedthrough a network.

One or more embodiments of the invention can also be embodied ascomputer readable code on a computer readable medium. The computerreadable medium is any data storage device that can store data, whichcan thereafter be read by a computer system. Examples of the computerreadable medium include hard drives, network attached storage (NAS),read-only memory, random-access memory, CD-ROMs, CD-Rs, CD-RWs, DVDs,Flash, magnetic tapes, and other optical and non-optical data storagedevices. The computer readable medium can also be distributed over anetwork coupled computer systems so that the computer readable code isstored and executed in a distributed fashion.

While one or more embodiments of the present invention have beendescribed, it will be appreciated that those skilled in the art uponreading the specification and studying the drawings will realize variousalterations, additions, permutations and equivalents thereof. It istherefore intended that embodiments of the present invention include allsuch alterations, additions, permutations, and equivalents as fallwithin the true spirit and scope of the invention as defined in thefollowing claims. Thus, the scope of the invention should be defined bythe claims, including the full scope of equivalents thereof.

1. A method implemented within a computer system, the computer systemcomprising at least one CPU, a memory, a storage and a communicationinterface, the method allowing the user to manage participant data toconfigure remote interactions with a plurality of participants usingmultiple multimedia streams over a network, the remote interactionsdetermined by participant data associated with each of the plurality ofparticipants, the method comprising: using the computer system to enablea new participant to join an interactive session; using the computersystem to determine participant data associated with the newparticipant; using the computer system to notify the new participant ofparticipant data associated with the other participants; using computersystem to notify other participants who previously joined theinteractive session that the new participant has joined; using thecomputer system to notify the other participants who previously joinedthe interactive session of the new participant's participant data; usingthe computer system to store the new participant's participant data; andusing the computer system to determine allowable remote interactionswith the new participant and each of the other participants, based onthe new participant data and that of each of the other participants,wherein participant data comprises profile information, categoryinformation, status information, and capability information associatedwith a user and the device he is using to participate in a session.
 2. Amethod implemented within a computer system comprising at least one CPU,a memory, a storage, a display, and a user interface, the methodenabling a user to configure a display consisting of one or more displayregions, the method comprising: using the computer system to select onedisplay region of a display to be modified; using the computer system tocommand the display to change visibility or size of a selected displayregion; using the computer system to configure the display regions on avirtual grid as rectangular regions anchored to a fixed location on thevirtual grid; using the computer system to resize of the all otherdisplay regions except the selected region to occur in a specific order;and using the computer system to resize all other regions, except theselected region, on the display.
 3. The method in claim 2, the methodfurther comprising: using the computer system to enable a user toconfigure participant data about that user, wherein participant datacomprises profile information, category information, status information,or capability information about that user and the equipment being usedto participate in an interactive session with other users; using thecomputer system to accept participant data associated with otherparticipants; and using the computer system to render a view of theother participants within a display region based on the participant dataassociated with the other participants, if the participant dataindicates that the display of the view is supported.
 4. The method inclaim 3, wherein the rendering of the view of other participants furthercomprises: using the computer system to display a plurality of displayobjects within the view of other participants, wherein each of theplurality of display objects representing an active participant througha client device, whereby selecting a display object enables a user tocommand the client device associated with each of the plurality ofdisplay objects, wherein the command relates to attributes of theassociated client device and the active participant associated with theeach of the plurality of display objects.
 5. The method in claim 4,wherein rendering of the view of the other participants furthercomprises: using the computer system to arrange the plurality of displayobjects to give an appearance of an auditorium, wherein the displayrepresenting each of the other participants are arranged in concentricrows.
 6. The method of claim 5, further comprising: using the computersystem to configure each of the display regions to define resizing as atleast one of horizontal only, vertical only, horizontal then vertical,or vertical then horizontal.
 7. The method of claim 6, furthercomprising: using the computer system to configure each of the displayregions to limit the resize not to be less than or greater than someconfigured size relative to the virtual grid.
 8. A presence serverenabling a plurality of participants to interact remotely with aplurality of multimedia channels, the interactions determined by eachparticipants' attributes and capabilities, the presence servercomprising: a computer, the computer comprising at least one CPU, astorage, a memory, and a communications interface; a presencenotification manager coupled to the computer that is configured toperform actions, including sending a notification to client devices thatone or more client devices have joined or left the session; a clientdevice handler coupled to the computer that is configured to performactions, including sending and receiving messages from the clientdevices; a session manager coupled to the computer that is configured toperform actions, including managing the state and the list ofparticipants associated with a session; a category manager coupled tothe computer that is configured to perform actions, including managinghow each client device may interact with the session; a profile managercoupled to the computer that is configured to perform actions, includingmanaging a list of users and the attributes that are associated withthat user; a capability manager coupled to the computer that isconfigured to perform actions, including determining what thecapabilities of each client device and its' associated user are based oninformation stored on the server and information received from theclient device; a status manager coupled to the computer that isconfigured to perform actions, including determining what theconfigurable status of each client device and its associated user arebased on information received from the client device.
 9. A client deviceadapted to managing participation by a user in a multimedia session,comprising: a computer, the computer comprising at least one CPU and amemory; a display configured to view and manage information frommultimedia sessions; a presence client handler that is configured toperform actions, including: sending requests to the server to connectand notify the server of the client's attributes, Receiving requestsfrom the server containing information on other clients who join orleave the session, and Processing the information on other clients toupdate the views; a list manager that is configured to perform actions,including maintaining a list of client devices and associatedcharacteristics associated with the session that the client device hasjoined; an audience view manager that is configured to perform actions,including: updating a view based on the change in state of theparticipants in the session, as indications are received thatparticipants have joined, left, or otherwise changed state; and a statusmanager that is configured to perform actions, including managing theconfigurable status of the client device and its' associated user andsending that information over the network on request.
 10. The clientdevice in claim 9 further comprising: a button handler coupled to thecomputer that is configured to perform actions, including commanding thedisplay to hide or resize a region on the display when the user selectsthe icon associated with that region on the display,